Illini won't forget bowl game isn't guaranteed

Bowl eligible doesn't mean bowl guaranteed. Illinois football coach Ron Zook will remind his team of that this week as the Illini prepare to meet Minnesota in the Metrodome Saturday.

John Supinie

Bowl eligible doesn't mean bowl guaranteed.

Illinois football coach Ron Zook will remind his team of that this week as the Illini (6-3 overall, 3-2 in the Big Ten Conference) prepare to meet Minnesota (1-8, 0-5) in the Metrodome Saturday (7 p.m., Big Ten Network).

"All we've done is set ourselves up for a much bigger game this week,'' Zook said. "This is a game that's crucial.''

The Big Ten has contracts with seven bowls (Rose, Capital One, Outback, Alamo, Champs, Insight and Motor City), but there are already six conference teams with bowl eligibility. Three more need one more win to gain bowl eligibility.

The Illini would lock up an eventual bowl berth with a seventh victory.

By the end of the season, 10 Big Ten teams could have the six wins necessary to be bowl eligible. The conference could help itself by earning two spots in Bowl Championships series events, thus giving the conference eight berths overall.

According to league rules, a Big Ten team with six wins can't accept a bowl invitation ahead of a conference team with seven victories. A Big Ten team must have seven wins to grab any leftovers from other conferences that can't fill bowl contracts.

"There's no guarantees that if you're bowl eligible that you are going to a bowl,'' Zook said. "We still have to win. Just because we're bowl eligible, that was never our goal. Our goal was to have the best season we could have.''

NOTE: Illinois' game at Ohio State on Nov. 10 is set for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff with television coverage by ABC.

John Supinie can be reached at Johnsupinie@aol.com. For more coverage, read Illini Talk blog at www.sj-r.com and www.pjstar.com.